Some time ago I posted about this foam garden I made for the girls - the one with the pickable strawberries and whatnot. It was an insane project. Loved every minute of it but just thinking of it now makes me feel very tired. The girls still play with it and Kate has stopped chewing the strawberries but truth be told, the felt cake gets a lot more playtime than the garden does. Maybe because it's summer and we are out watering our real tomato plants (I'd thought of doing a tomato plant but tomatoes are so... bunchy and viney and then there are the tomato horn worms!!!!! Ick. Ick. Ick. Ick.) Perhaps in the winter when we're missing all things living outdoors, it might become Toy of the Week.

Anyway, in recent weeks, I've been thrilled to receive some emails and comments from readers who've actually made the foam-and-felt dirt and gardens! Yes! I was so excited to see the fabulous variations they made to the original design, most notable being some very cool containers for the dirt. Mine, you remember, was just bare brown stuff that looked like a furrowed cushion. But theirs- oh, here, here, I'll stop gabbing and tell you where to go see for yourself.

Chris the Gardener finished this wonderful box of dirt.and is now working on the flowers. Go see what she's planted in the dirt meanwhile! She finished it! Just today! So I updated this link - go see it here! Her flowers are astounding.

Edited in 2011 to add: Readers, please note that the egg-yolk details are made of PAPER. That is a PROP for the photoshoot. Humpty Dumpty does not crack open to reveal an egg of any kind. It's just a regular stuffed doll. Thought I'd add this in because of multiple cases of misunderstandings on sewing forums and email queries.

A shirred tube dress. Or about a yard of fabric to shir. See the first Summer Dress post for the prep.

About a yard of bias tape - the 3/8" or 1/2" kind is a good width for straps.

Scissors, sewing machine etc.

Step 1

Sew the side seams of the dress and serge/finish the seam edges and bottom hem.

Lay the dress flat, with the side seam either in the middle of the back, or down one of the sides.

Cut out the armholes. Important note: pre-shirred fabric, as earlier mentioned, has an elastic chain-stitch, so when cut, does not unravel in the crazy-instant way that home-shirred straight stitches do. If you are using a dress you shirred at home, you should draw the armhole line, sew the bias tape on as in Step 4, and then cut the armhole out before moving on to Step 5.

The armhole should be rounded at the bottom, not pointed.

The width of this rounded bowl shape was 2.5" and

the height 2-2.5" (when the shirring was not stretched)

for Emily's dress. Adjust these measurements for a

smaller or larger child, or for whether you prefer a halter-

neck look (like this dress) or the regular small-armhole-

just-for-comfort stlye.

Step 2

Measure the length of bias tape needed for the armhole and shoulder strap. I actually put the dress on Emily (almost 5 years old) and Jenna (almost 3 years old) and measured around their armholes to get accurate measurements. Emily's was 14" and Jenna's was 13".

Cut two lengths of bias tape 1/2" longer than this measurement. So here are two pieces of single-fold bias tape 14.5" long for Emily's dress.

Step 3

Using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew the ends of one piece of tape together, right sides facing (left piece of tape in the picture).

Repeat for the other piece of tape. You will then have two loops.

Press open the seam (right piece of tape in the picture).

Step 4

Place the wrong side of the bias tape on the wrong side of the armhole and

align the edge of the bias tape with the edge of the armhole that you cut in step 1.

position the seam you sewed in step 3 along the side seam of the dress that you sewed in step 1.

Pin (I prefer basting) if necessary.

Beginning just below the edge of the dress, sew along the fold of the bias tape around the armhole. Stop sewing just before you reach the other edge of the dress. This means you are only sewing the portion of the bias tape that will be attached to the dress fabric. Don't forget to backstitch at both ends of the stitching.

When completed, you will have a loop of bias tape, of which

the lower half is connected to the dress and

the upper half is completely unsewn.

Step 5

Fold the unsewn edge of the bias tape over to the right side of the fabric, and topstitch all around the loop to finish the strap.

Measure around the chest of your child. Multiply this by two and add 3-4 inches for good measure. Call this measurement X.

Measure also the length of the dress you want, from the armpit to where you want the bottom hem to be. Call this Y.

Cut out a piece of fabric of length X and width Y. Y should be parallel to the selvedge, especially if it is a knit or some other stretchy fabric. This is so the fabric stretches sideways when worn (i.e. along X) and not vertically. Vertical stretching makes for an uneven hemline over time.

Here is a piece of fabric before shirring, and another piece

(just very slightly smaller, because it was for a smaller child)

below that, after shirring. It "shrinks" a lot, doesn't it?

Step 2

For the actual shirring process (like how to get the elastic thread all stretchy), see my friend Jen's tutorial on her blog, for nice instructions and a pattern for making an adult shirred tube top.

For this dress, I

first finished the top edge with the serger on a rolled-hem setting. You can fold it over and top-stitch with a regular sewing machine instead.

then sewed 6 rows of shirring 1/2" apart, beginning the first row 1/2" from the finished top edge. The rows of stitches were parallel to the finished top edge i.e. X. The entire shirred portion was about 3" wide, because I wanted this to be baby-doll-ish. You can add more rows of stitches if you want a longer shirred bodice. Remember to backstitch at the start and end of each row of shirring.

This is what the front and back look like.

Step 3

Grab your child, wrap the dress around her to desired snugness and to determine the final width. Do NOT cut away the excess fabric yet! I beg you - for the love of all things sacred!

Sew the side seam with a regular sewing machine, with right sides of the fabric facing each other.

Reinforce the seam with the shirred portion with more stitches, preferably of different stitch length to be sure to catch all the elastic thread.

Then serge or cut-and-zig-zag the seam allowance. Doing this before sewing the seam with a regular sewing machine is disastrous (guess what I did) and will unshir all your shirring and leave you devastated and dangerous around sharp objects. Sniff.

But anyway, anyone notice that the dress looks like a dress already?

Step 4

Finish the bottom hem.

Step 5

Make straps - either with ribbon, bias tape (sewn shut) or make your own with the same fabric as the dress. The spiral in the picture is the strap(s) before I cut it into half for each shoulder. This strap was sewn like double-fold bias tape, except it was not cut on the bias because the knit fabric already had some stretch. If you have a serger, you could cut a long strip of 1" wide knit fabric and do a stretch rolled-hem (so it ruffles) on both edges. This makes pretty wavy-edged shoulder straps.

Step 6

Fold in about 1/4" of the the raw end of the strap and sew the end of the strap to the wrong side of the fabric, just above the first line of shirring. Again, I had the wearer model the dress and marked out where I wanted the straps to be, and how long to cut them. Shirring (like other ways to elasticize something) is very inexact - and different outcomes will happen for different fabrics, types of elastic thread, bobbin tension, width of original unshirred piece of fabric etc. So the most accurate way to ensure the bodice fits right, and the straps are positioned correctly, is to try them on the wearer and measure as you go.

Turn the shorts inside out - this is important! Even if it is counter-intuitive. This is what cost me an hour of seam ripping yesterday.

Insert the shorts into the skirt.

Step 2

Line up their waists and pin the two layers together at the side seams and the center front and back.

Step 3

Using a 3/8" or 1/4' seam allowance, sew all around the waist to join the skirt to the shorts. Stretch the waist of the shorts to fit the skirt as you sew, if necessary.

Step 4

Turn the entire garment right side out (so the shorts are inside).

Top-stitch close to the top of the seam.

Measure 1 1/8" from the line of top-stitching and sew another row of stitches all around waist, leaving a 2" opening for inserting the elastic. In the picture, you can see the top-stitching and the elastic for width-reference.

Hello and Welcome!

I am a gratefully unemployed mom of three girls, all of whom are growing up much too soon! I like piles of warm, fresh laundry, the smell of salt air near the beach where I used to live, making lists, anything round (like heads) and the quiet evenings sitting with the man of the house after the kids are in bed.

Copyright

You are welcome to link to this blog and to any post on this blog and use ONE or TWO photos for that purpose. Do not use photos of my children. You are welcome to pin images from my blog, if those photos do not have my children's faces in them. Please contact me if you want to use the text on, or more photos from, this blog. Do not post my tutorials on your sites. Do not translate tutorials from this blog into other languages on your site. The ideas and instructions in the tutorials are free - but please use them to only make stuff for yourself or for gifts and not to sell. Ta! For more information, this and this might be helpful.